Appeared in documentaries: The Last Man Alive (short) (1971); A
Look at the World of Soylent Green (short) (1973); The Fantasy Film
Worlds of George Pal (Arnold Leibovit 1985); The Hollywood Road to Oz
(1990); Mystery of the Sphinx (Bill Cote 1993); The Bible According
to Hollywood (Philip Dye 1994); A Century of Science Fiction (Ted
Newsom 1996); Mysterious Origins of Man (Cote 1996); To Be on Camera:
A History with Hamlet (short) (1997); Hollywood Aliens & Monsters
(Kevin Burns 1997); Charlton Heston Presents the Bible (Tony Westman
1997); Behind the Planet of the Apes (Burns and David Comtois 1998).

After a brief
apprenticeship in television, Charlton Heston quickly established himself as
one of Hollywood's biggest stars, most celebrated for leading roles in the
biblical epics The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur (1959); at the
time, no one could have imagined that such a luminary would ever appear in a
science fiction film. But in 1967, the unthinkable happened: it was announced
that Heston would be starring in an adaptation of Pierre Boulle's science
fiction novel Planet of the Apes. Young filmgoers, who have grown up
routinely seeing Hollywood's top talents in science fiction films, cannot
appreciate just how stunning it was to hear that an actor of Heston's stature
would be following in the footsteps of Richard CARLSON,
Jeff MORROW, and John AGAR. By starring in that
film, and helping to make it a huge success, Heston almost single-handedly
turned the once-marginalized genre of science fiction films into the popular,
big-budget tradition that it is today.

Furthermore,
while other prominent actors who ventured into science fiction visibly regarded
the assignments as beneath their dignity (recall, if
you must, Walter PIDGEON),
Heston enthusiastically threw himself into the role of astronaut George Taylor,
reinventing his screen persona as an athletic, arrogant hothead; indeed, one of
the film's subtleties is that, in allowing his character to be portrayed as not
entirely admirable, Heston was foreshadowing the final revelation that the
species he represents had long ago contrived to destroy itself, perhaps the
fate that it deserved.

I prefer to
think of Planet of the Apes as the first film in Heston's science
fiction trilogy, ignoring his disruptive cameo in Beneath the Planet of the
Apes, where he rudely shoves aside star James Franciscus in the final
fifteen minutes so that he can do the honors of blowing up the planet Earth;
clearly, Heston should have either stayed out of the film or agreed to star in
it. The Omega Man was not widely admired at the time, probably due to
its admittedly-risible conclusion in which Heston's character is literally
crucified as he gives up the blood that will save the human race, but Heston's
performance was as vigorous as ever, and the film may be winning new admirers
as people realize that, for all its flaws, it is still much better than its
Will SMITH remake I Am Legend (2007). More successful on all fronts was Soylent
Green, a pioneering vision of the future as urban nightmare, with Heston's
cynical cop functioning as a dry run for Harrison FORD's Deckard in Blade
Runner (1982).

After these
ventures into the future, Heston drifted back into more conventional heroics
and spent most of the 1980s trying to make it as a television star. As he
entered his seventies in the 1990s, his career became a hodgepodge of
insignificant guest appearances, cheesy documentaries, and voiceover
assignments; about the only time he had any impact was when he memorably
appeared as Arnold SCHWARZENEGGER's
tough-guy boss in True Lies. He was also spending more time away from
the set in his new role as the vice president of the National Rifle
Association, energetically promoting the right to bear arms, which led to his
ill-advised cameo in Tim BURTON's
ill-advised remake of Planet of the Apes, playing an elderly ape who
warns of violent humans by brandishing one of their
ancient handguns. Burton would have been wiser to make Heston the star of the film; for, even at the age of
seventy-seven, Heston would have been a more passionate and engaging
protagonist than Mark WAHLBERG. After that final appearance, Heston spent his
final years in obscurity, suffering from Alzheimer's disease and, one hopes,
periodically remembering and reveling in his glory years.